Thursday, May 5, 2016

On Saturday, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta led the burning
of 105 metric tons of ivory in Nairobi.

The message? That unless it’s on an elephant, ivory is
worthless and Kenya is committed to stopping illegal wildlife trade that is
devastating Kenya’s breathtaking natural heritage. Across Africa, more than
30,000 elephants are killed for their ivory every year (BBC). The massive piles
of recovered ivory burned on Saturday represent 6,000-7,000 dead elephants.

There were mixed opinions across the media and social
networks following the burning. Some commended the African leaders present for
taking such a bold stand against poachers, while other argued that destroying
the ivory will only make it rarer and more expensive, ultimately raising the
demand for poached ivory.

from Al Jazerra

While I’d have to do more research to form my own opinion on
the event, I will say that I am glad that wildlife trade and trafficking has
been increasingly condemned and discussed over the last few years. In February,
the European Commission has created an EU Action Plan against Wildlife
Trafficking to reduce illegal trade within the European Union. In January U.S.
Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell helped to solidify an official
partnership with Kenya to stop trafficking between the two countries. And
recently, major airlines have started to refuse to transport hunting trophies,
especially those of protected species.

The World Wildlife Fund cites illegal wildlife trade and
trafficking as the second-most dire threat to overall species survival (habitat
destruction is the greatest threat). I can only hope that the recent attention
given to illegal trafficking might prove to be a major blow to the industry.

Why am I talking about poaching and wildlife trade on a
hyena blog? Well, when I read about the ivory burning in Nairobi, I remembered
that we are living and working in a national park where poaching occurs. Often,
news stories seem distant and disconnected from our daily lives, but in this
case, the rangers we pass and wave to each day have caught and arrested
poachers. This news story was actually quite relevant to our lives here in
Kenya.

To be clear, we have never seen a poacher or evidence of
poaching during our year here, and the guys tell me that poaching has been
significantly reduced over the last decade thanks to the valiant efforts of the
Mara Conservancy and the rangers. But it does happen. We’ve heard stories of
poachers being caught with hippo meat, trying to take it Tanzania to sell where
bush meat is legal (it’s not in Kenya), and the rangers removed the tusks of an
elephant skull almost immediately after the hyenas left the carcass alone
(stumbling away fat and happy, of course!).

Watching elephants graze, somehow still graceful despite
their enormity, I am thankful and relieved there are so many local, national, and global efforts
to slow and stop wildlife trafficking. For a world without elephants – or
lions, leopards, or rhinos – would be a lesser one.

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